We spent two days in the southeast corner of Nebraska this week, pulling garlic mustard at our Rulo Bluffs Preserve. It was the second trip in as many weeks, and there was still plenty to do the second time around. The preserve is less than 450 acres in size, but feels much bigger when we’re hiking up and down the steep bluffs.
A may apple flower hides beneath the canopy of its own leaves. The Nature Conservancy’s Rulo Bluffs Preserve, Nebraska.
There were still some spring wildflowers in bloom at the Preserve, including the mayapples (Poldophyllum peltatum) shown above. It was good to see them – they were motivation for slogging up the hill to the next patch of garlic mustard…
The Prairie Ecologist 
You enjoy Mayapple too. In Wisconsin, ours are just unwrapping, and stretching their leaves. Spring is just beginning. Ann
Hope you stopped along the way to pull that garlic mustard!
Rulo Bluff just does not feel like part of Nebraska.
It does feel like part of NE Kansas, however, where I spent my seven years in college (at Lawrence). The woods are lovely, dark and deep (to quote Frost); and full of Mayapples in season. Also full of poison ivy, of course.
My wife and I were just at Rulo Bluffs myself last weekend looking for warblers. Great hike (once you climb the bluff). I was most struck by the number of paw paw trees blossoming. I haven’t tried paw paw or mayapple, so now I have to return at least twice this year.
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